Bowhunting 101: Shot Placement and Where to Shoot a Deer

It’s been said that success is where preparation meets opportunity. Days spent logging hours at a range over at the archery club or at home, you’re honing your skills to create the ultimate confidence that you can place an arrow where you want no matter where your target is.

Most archers find themselves leading lives shooting year-round as proficiency and skill come from repetition and perfect practice. Archers and their equipment set-ups can’t really be compared to anything else. Varying combinations of arrow sizes, weights, and strings make for a somewhat ever-changing set-up that should always be monitored and calibrated when needed.

That’s why serious archers don’t simply dust off their bow the day before the opener, grab some off of the rack arrows, shoot three into a target and head out to their hunting spot. They are students of their equipment, the animals they hunt, and most importantly they are students of archery and shot placement.

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who admits shooting an arrow at an animal they hoped they missed. No archer also is happy about a bad shot that leaves an animal with a would that is not ethical, effective, and as lethal as it can be in the shortest amount of time. No archer also enjoys a long spotty tracking job that can last 24 hours or more and possibly lose the game to a private property line.

Educating yourself on shot placement is critical because as almost every hunter knows, game doesn’t always stand out perfectly broadside at exactly 20 yards. They creep in behind you, come towards you straight on, and approach from any variety of angles.

Sometimes you’re hunting from an elevated tree stand and others times you may be in a ground blind. You also have a variety of vegetation to contend with that isn’t always replicable at your practice range.

If you’re new to bowhunting, or you’re looking to improve your shot process, finding the vitals on a deer can be easier than you think. If you follow the back of the animal’s front leg up until you reach halfway from the belly to the top of the back right behind the shoulder, you’ll be where you want to be.

If the animal jumps and your arrow enters a little high, you’ll go high into the lungs which is fine. A little low and your arrow will go into the heart which is a fatal, quick, and ethical kill. The center of the ribcage will put your arrow into the large lung area which is an excellent area to target.

3D targets will also give a good reference for when you’re practicing, but in the field following the back of the front leg has been tried and true for many generations of bowhunters.

The most effective thought process to adopt is the idea that you want to “aim for the exit.” It’s unclear who first coined the term, but it’s been repeated over and over by archers at hunting camps, trailheads, and archery shops all over.

Aiming for the exit means thinking about where you arrow is going to come out of the animal and then thinking about where to put your pin to enter the animal. The best real-world example is when a deer is quartering away from you. Quartering to you or away from you is a deer that’s on an angle either facing toward you or facing away from you.

A deer’s vital target area changes as it moves around and for a deer quartering away from you, you would want to aim behind its front leg on the opposite side of the one you’re aiming at. If you were to reference the front leg of the side you’re aiming at, you would put your arrow too far into the front of the animal and miss most of the lungs and possibly the heart altogether.

Hunting from an elevated tree stand creates additional solutions and problems for shot placement. You have the ability to see where your arrow will come out from your bird’s-eye-view. With that advantage you know should compensate for your elevated angle.

Some optics companies will sell a rangefinder that has a setting that will tell you the yardage to aim for from a higher angle and it’s usually aiming at a shorter yardage than you think. The deer could be 18 yards from the base of your tree, but with the angle it could tell you to aim as if it was 12 yards.

If you can practice from a tree stand on a 3D target at home safely, that’s great. If not, try to find a public or private archery range that will allow you to practice elevated shots.

Your arrow entering from above can be a little tricky as now your arrow is already above the vital organs. You can easily miss the heart completely and lungs that have been punctured at the top can take a long to time fill with blood before then exit the animal leaving a large distance before it begins to trail its blood.

There is also a good chance you could hit the animal in the spine. While the animal will mostly likely fall there, it’s a would that will take a long time to kill the animal and be difficult to witness. A second shot would be needed to humanely dispatch the animal in the event you would hit it in the spine.

Again, it’s a good idea to aim for the center of the rib cage. The downward trajectory can start at the middle of the lungs, go into the heart, or come out of the bottom of the lungs leaving a quick and easy blood trail and a near sudden animal expiration.

The best recipe for success is repetition and perfect practice. 3D courses are very popular and accessible not to mention a lot of fun either by yourself or with a few friends. You don’t have to worry about getting caught up in the scoring, you can simply practice for hunting and take notice of where the arrow went in and where it was coming out. That’s priceless knowledge for your time in the woods when you find yourself drawing back.